Customer Competencies, Co-Creation, and Brand Communities Skilful Minds.

Word of mouth communities and networks using social software are increasingly spread over regional, national, and international borders, making them much more important to those who market branded products and services, online and off. The recent buzz around the concept ofsocial business points to the growing importance of social networks and communities to the evolution of business practice. Whether companies are in fact closing thecommunity gap or theengagement gap remains an openquestion though.

As RachaelHappe of the Community Roundtable notes in commentary on theCommunity Maturity Model:

in the stages before a company becomes truly networked, metrics are isolated to supporting one business process vs. in a networked business the whole business becomes social and the communities are set up to support cross-functional goals.

Continues @ http://skilfulminds.com